Large manufacturers, for example bakeries, require long product runs for economies. When one product is switched to another, the entire production system is cleaned and rearranged where necessary, resulting in down time on production. It is useful to make the production runs as long as possible so that the ingredient receiving and loading, the mixing, product forming and shaping, and baking processes remain uniform in long production runs.
To achieve the economies of long production runs in a bakery, it is necessary to provide interim storage for products.
It is particularly beneficial when a bakery is producing several different products that it produce all of each particular product needed for that day during one production run. Often in large bakeries, the production of products occurs twenty-four hours a day. It is also desirable that most of the products leave the bakery within a few hours in the early morning for proper distribution to retailers so that fresh baked goods can be sold. Orders are received in a bakery to produce so many products of each type every day. When adequate interim storage facilities are available the production runs may be long and continuous, with one production run for each product in each day.
Needs exist for storage facilities which reliably and quickly move products from the bakery output and which reliably and quickly move the products from the storage facility to trucks for delivery.